Carter ordered from one of the new self-order kiosks at the restaurant at 563 Nilles Road, where customers can now bypass the counter to order on a computer screen and pay with a credit or debit card. It’s a feature all 18 Butler County McDonald’s restaurants will eventually have, according to McDonald’s USA.

“I was curious to see how busy we’d be,” said Tafur, who runs the day-to-day operations along with some supervisors. “I know a lot of our customers had been going to other restaurants, so I know the word had been getting out, but I was curious to see how busy we’d be right at 11 (a.m.)”

The crowd shouldn’t come to a surprise, because the Nilles Road McDonald’s is the 13th-highest in transactions in the country in terms of total guests, according to Pawling. His Oxford McDonald’s, he said, is No. 2 in the country in total guests and No. 1 in the country in drive-through traffic.

“We have a loyal base of customers, and we have long-term employees,” he said. “Of course, the McDonald’s product is well-known, and we just try to be as service-conscious as we can. That’s the key.”

The newly rebuilt McDonald’s at 563 Nilles Road in Fairfield reopened on July 19, nearly four months after the original building was razed. The McDonald’s location is one of the busiest ones in the country.
(MICHAEL D. PITMAN/STAFF)

Because of the anticipated volume, they increased the staffing and nearly everyone who worked at the restaurant when it closed came back, Pawling said. He said they hired more staff in anticipation of even more guests.

Tafur said the location now has close to 100 employees.

One thing that will likely drive traffic is the new look and features, Pawling said.

Pawling has already rebuilt some of his nine McDonald’s restaurants and plans to remodel the others ones as well. He owns McDonald’s restaurants in Fairfield, Hamilton, Middletown, Oxford and Richmond, Ind.

McDonald's is taking steps toward phasing out plastic straws in some of its restaurants in the U.K. and introducing a more environmentally conscious paper version.